Vendanges, Voyages, et Une Belle Vie: Decuvages

It's been about a month since we started and most of the grapes in tanks have turned into wine! It's magic! So now the real fun begins: DECUVAGE! Kate was the first of the two to have the privilege of doing this. She usually works on the white wines but earlier this week, the red team borrowed her to do this job. She put on fashionable rain boots, climbed down ladder into a bed of grape skins and began shoveling them out like a pro. Even though she got one of the smaller concrete tanks (holding 8,500 liters), it's no easy job... Probably more than an hour worth of shoveling. Then Martin's lucky day came today. After eating a large lunch (big mistake), he got to decuvage one of the largest concrete tanks in the winery. We estimate maybe about 5 tons worth of skins? Anyway let's just say it wasn't easy either. We both endured the heat, grape mud, muscle aches, remaining CO2 and slight claustrophobia... but at the end we came out triumphant.